Sericoda

Abstract: The mite genus Antennoseius is composed of free-living species in soil and litter, as well as species that are phoretic on carabid beetles as adult females. Among approximately 60 described Antennoseius species, one North American species, A. janus, was found in laboratory cultures to have two female morphs: one granular, free-living morph, and one smooth, putatively phoretic morph. We here describe the adult females of A. perseus n. sp. and A. pyrophilus n. sp. collected from under the elytra of carabid beetles (Sericoda quadripunctata and S. bembidioides) associated with recently burned forests in Alberta, Canada. We also describe the female and male of a distinct, granular, non-phoretic morph of A. perseus, obtained from soil and by rearing the offspring of phoretic females. A key to the females of Antennoseius species having an ambulacrum on leg I (i.e. subgenus Vitzthumia) is provided.

Abstract: Phylogenetic relationships of three species-group taxa within the Oriental Platynini (Coleoptera, Carabidae) are briefly discussed and the following synonymies are proposed: Orthotrichus Peyron, 1856 = Metagonum Jeannel, 1948, new synonymy; = Kalchtacha Morvan, 2002, new synonymy. Orthotrichus baehri (Morvan, 2002) from the Western Ghats of India is redescribed. This species is the only representative of that genus with generalized elytral chaetotaxy in the oriental region, and it is unique within this genus by its heavily spined aedeagal internal sac. Sericoda balli, new species, is described from the upper Indus Valley of the Northwest Himalaya in Pakistan. It is probably the sister species of the Holarctic Sericoda quadripunctata (DeGeer, 1774), which commonly occurs in the more eastern parts of the Himalaya. The new species differs by the broader pronotum and elytra, by the less produced humeri, and by the shallower setiferous fovea in third elytral interval. Agonum liebherri, new species, is...